Womens World Cup

It’s being celebrated. Not like the men’s team of course. No street parties, but it’s big news and everyone I know over there watched the game.

 

I agree with most of what you said but Russo was the right one to go she did not have a good game.

 

Fumin' to read reports coming in that heartless Spaniards have been TAUNTING proud but heartbroken Lioness Brits holidaying on the BRITISH Costas by blatantly and cruelly celebrating their country's win.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/w...osta-del-Sol-celebrate-World-Cup-victory.html

There have been reported incidences of Spaniards:

• Cheering
• Jumping into British swimming pools
• Shaking maracas and playing guitars very fast
• Dancing flamenco
• Waving straw donkeys
• Drinking wine out of those mini watering can things with long thin spouts

I'm off to kick in the window of my local Santander bank and tapas bar.

 

Part of the thing that's off-putting to me is all the wonderful sports (wo)manship people are talking about. All the congratulations to the other teams and "tried their best/did a great job!"

I want to see some insults thrown around and taunting. *********ry. It's what makes the game great

 

Most of the England team got swept up in the occasion and lost their composure, which tends to be what happens with the men too.

It was a bit like watching somebody play Fifa - every time we got possession it was either a case of booting it up to the forwards asap, or going on a run and holding onto the ball too long. So many bad decisions. So many pointless tricks which lost possession. So many breaks down the wing only to look up and see nobody was in the box. On the plus side, at least the rhetoric about the women being psychologically stronger than the men will quieten a bit, they're both mentally weak.

Lucy Bronze has been one of the best England players for years, but was massively off her game today. Not just for the goal, but numerous times she dropped us in the ****.

Great save from the spot, but I'm surprised it wasn't retaken as it looked like she was off her line when the ball was struck. Not that it matters now.

 

Spot on about Bronze and the FIFA comment,not that I've ever played it!

No idea what LB was doing other than as I said before that she and Walsh were trying to impose themselves on their Spanish teammates.

In truth if you reflect they never really clicked throughout the event and SW had so many problems to face. Injuries to key players pre tournament, James being a sap and the Walsh injury once it began.

Sometimes it's not meant to be.

 

That's the thing. There's this ongoing effory to lionise and canonise these quite successful sportswomen over and above what's required.

Making a final is huge and a big step forward. It will inspire even more girls to kick a ball, just as the Euros did, but let's be clear here. We played well in about 3 halves all tournament and otherwise did enough to get by, but we lacked any real quality.

Women's football is at the precipice of a great crossroads. Some of the things people have loved about it, eg. Lack of *********ry, good sportswomanship, underdog stories, more grounded sports people than the men's game etc are at risk as the game gets bigger exposure and the players become more celebrated.

I listened to the game on Radio 5 Live medium wave rather than watched, but from that, my conclusion was clear that we didn't deserve to win and aside from a few moments here and there, never really threatened to get back into the game. Spain had our number tactically and ability wise.

Now let's see if Women's football can kick on without picking up all the undesirabilty of the men's game.

I'll still be following Women's football more because of this exposure, so it's been a great platform for the game.

 

It was a terrific tournament and I’m quite sad it’s over.

Spain were worthy winners and such a sad story about Carmona today.

In his excellent post, I feel @wfcmoog is quite right to say England were inconsistent throughout the tournament, but that’s tournament football eh. Few sides cruise through every round on their way to a final. You only have to look at Argentina in Qatar. Our women found a way to win even when not on top of their game, always a good habit to have. But the final proved one match too far. European champions and World runners-up. Not bad!

I’m looking forward to early October now and the start of the new domestic season.

 

Five years or more ago Lucy Bronze was far and away the best England player and seemed startlingly good. However in the last couple of years I feel she has been relatively disappointing. I think that might be partly down to her getting older towards the end of her career, but mostly that the younger players coming through are now of a higher standard than we have been used to and she just doesn’t stand out any more in comparison. All very encouraging really.

 

Ironically, considering her name, she’s now won gold and silver in the last two years!

A terrific servant of English football, but for sure yesterday wasn’t her finest moment. A pity.

An unsung hero for us this tournament in my opinion has been Jess Carter. I thought she was very decent in the final too.

 

Yes, you're quite correct - that is tournament football. Had we ground down Spain in the final, you'd have to say we looked like those German teams in the men's game who go into every tournament expecting to win, even when they might come up against technically better teams with more flair players. Tournament experts.

Spain, of old in the Men's game would be the opposite, or Netherlands. Always great teams, full of great players, but rarely winning until that great Spanish side of 2008-2012.

People have been critical of Southgate's men's team despite the outcomes seemingly showing he's the best tournament manager England have had since Ramsay, if not ever.

In any case, I feel for both the men's and women's national sides, belief is growing and I hope they play off each other. I don't like this rivalry which some fans and media create. There's no need to celebrate the successes of one, by denigrating the other.

 

The only way it will kick on is when it opens up to the masses I reckon.

For whatever reasons (I simply cannot be bothered to research it) there is a glaring and undeniable lack of people of colour in the squad. Until they are enticed into the sport, it seems to me the pool of players is limited, and that means the overall ability of the players is lower than it could and should be.

Unless of course coincidentally the Aryan race is just the best at women's football.

 

I ran a girls team for several years and we welcomed anyone. There are no barriers other than parents not wanting their daughters to play football, that's it.

 

Well parents not wanting their daughters to play is a barrier!

As is the perception the sport is just for white poshos and lesbians.

 

Poppycock!

 

What part? For the first part, there are cultural issues why some girls don't play much sport, right?

And for the second part, I don't see this england team as identifiable role models for a girls from inner city slums like lewisham (for example).

I could be talking bolloxcks mind, as I've done no research into the topic.

 

I will reply later in full.

 

Female football be it women or girls is the fastest growing sport worldwide. Padel will push it close in the next few years but it will still lead the way.

Yes there are some cultural problems but not insurmountable.

I think the Dark Ages of females in sport being viewed as for the 'white poshos or lesbians' has passed thankfully.

Yes there are wealthy white lesbians in sport just as there are successful role models who do not fit that moniker. Anne Keovathong is from Hackney. Her parents were refugees from Laos. Emma Raducanu from a similar mixed background.

I could go on with the list but the main barrier is electronica and the lure of the shopping centre or online as it has now become. That together with school work and socialising/relationships tend to reduce the numbers of all participants whether male or female from 14 onwards.

Many males return either at or after university but women will then find another barrier in child rearing at whatever age they decide to start a family.

As for role models within the team Malts has already mentioned Jess Carter and despite her indiscretion, Lauren James remains another.

 

But why are there so few black players in women's football, when in the men's sport there are shyt loads? The UK women's athletics team doesnt have such a glaring omission.

 

Football must be one of, if not the cheapest and easiest sports for children/their parents to access. (And also one with the lowest barrier for talent from any background to make it through) Any lack of diversity can only really be down to lack of interest from either the child or the parent, which hopefully the recent success of the woman’s team will help with. But obviously you won’t immediately see a more diverse woman’s national team in the middle of a tournament, it will take years to filter through.

 

Do you want the honest non PC answer to that?
It's becuase, (in my humble opinion and experience), that it's usually the fathers that make the call to the football club to enquire about bringing their daughters down for introduction sessions. In fact I don't remember a single call from a new players mother to make enquiries in all the time I ran the team. You can work out the rest.

 

This is a good point and one that rings true in tennis too.

Almost always the mother is the taxi, social secretary etc in terms of the child's tennis.

With black children it does tend to be the father,I can only think of one exception to that in my experience.

 

English fans never do that kind of thing. Especially dancing flamenco.

 

Yes, she was my favourite player but had a very poor final. Didn't she have a knee operation recently?

 

Absolute scum.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

 

But boys football is full of black kids right? So doesn't the theory fall down there?

 

Maybe black parents feel that football is for boys and not lady-like for girls ?

 

That's quite likely I'd say.
There's also huge wads of cash in the men's game.
Plenty of minorities in tennis,the Kournikova affect. Thousands of girls and boys at the Spartak Club in Moscow trying to escape poverty through tennis. As ever with Russia,be it warfare or sport they play the numbers game.

Same now applies to East Europeans,Baltic etc etc.

Very few top GB juniors like Isabelle Lacy,Anglo Saxon. Harry Searle is another rarity.

Raducanu, Keovathong,Stoiber, Klugman...

 

Schools and boys football go hand in hand, (apart from the posh schools). Schools and girls netball the same. The England netball team seems pretty well balanced to me compared to the England ladies football team.
Once the schools adopt football for girls instead of netball, (which has been ongoing for a while), then I'm sure you'll very quickly see such representation happen in women's football.

 

Makes sense. Hopefully anyway. A bigger pool of players to pick from will increase the standard, and shut up the obese bores on twitter who think they would have played a starring role in the world cup final just because they used to play Elms 5 aside football at Woodside 20 years ago.

 

I expect Semra Hunter will regret using the phrase "lip service" regarding the 'kissgate' episode.

 

It is a shame that this episode seems to have overshadowed the Final, if not the Tournament now - probably even more so in Spain itself (unless they make less of a big deal about this type of thing, which might actually be why it happened in the first place, as it is hard to envisage a Head of the English FA doing something like this).

However the latest I read today is that he's not exactly going quietly anyway!